Super League to expand to 14 teams from 2026

The 12 current Super League clubs have approved expanding the competition to 14 teams starting in the new year.

The league stated in a statement that the club grading system and an independent panel would be used as part of the expansion.

Both the strategic review subcommittee and Lord Jonathan Caine, who recently took the board seat, will serve as the panel’s chair.

Two of the panel’s recommended clubs will join the top 12 clubs under the grading system at the end of 2025 “provided there are two applications with sufficient merit against the set criteria.”

The league will have 14 teams as it will be its first season since 2014, after dropping to 12 for the 2015 campaign.

Following a meeting of the member clubs in Headingley on Monday, the expansion was decided.

In the past two seasons, rugby league clubs have been graded according to media outlet IMG and Rugby League Commercial’s “Reimagining Rugby League,” but only the league structure for 2025 has been determined based on the criteria, which saw Wakefield take over as the top flight for this term.

These games are currently decided based on previous year’s league placements.

The league has implemented a number of organizational structures since 2015, including a late-season split structure that saw clubs play 23 games before being divided into three eight-team teams that included the 24 Super League and Championship opponents.

The top “Super 8s” team then played seven more games, with the top four of the group competing for Super League Grand Final spots at the time.

However, that format was ended prior to the 2019 campaign, when top-flight teams each played a total of 29 regular-season games, including six more loop games.